Tabs Out | Googoosh Dolls – mashallah / jangal

Here’s the background assumption: Iran-via-New York techno outsiders Googoosh Dolls came up with one of those great ironic double-names like Ringo Deathstarr or John Cougar Concentration Camp and couldn’t help but go with it. How can you not with something as inherently uncool as the Goo Goo Dolls and (maybe) Iranian singer Googoosh? I can’t vouch for the coolness of Googoosh. I’ve only heard of her this second.

So it’s no surprise then that the vibrant electronic samplefest on “mashallah” and “jangal,” two tracks from the full-length “technowruz ii,” filters Iranian ethnicity all throughout it. (That’s the friggin’ Iranian flag that adorns the cover, after all.) It’s a tape constantly in motion, flecked with the same type of gold audio glitter that literally coats the tape shell. “Mashallah” creeps along at a synthwave pace, with fingersnap snare hits punctuating the unravelable polyrhythmic knot. “Jangal,” on the other hand, is an in-your-face rave masterpiece, a “daf punk” late-night meltdown complete with strobe light [*actual strobe light not included]. In fact, if given a chance, Googoosh Dolls may even change some of our stubborn American minds about how to view Iran in a more-than-narrow way… They may even melt the cold, dead heart of our president, and get him to dance again!